Administrator spends summers rolling in the dirt and smoke

Every summer, Dennis Konrad hangs up his tie and pulls on firefighting boots.

“It’s a good way for me to recharge my batteries,” said the Borah High School assistant principal.

The 51-year-old has been fighting fires for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) since the day after graduating high school — 32 summers.

“I call it a three-month camping trip,” Konrad said. “You come out and roll in the dirt and smoke.”

For the last 10 years, Konrad has been a BLM fire operation supervisor. When a fire breaks out, he delegates job tasks to the firefighters on the scene. Konrad works Tuesday-Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and stays at a fire until the flames are extinguished.

“It’s a lot of paperwork,” Konrad said. “I take great pride in this career and I enjoy it every year.”